NORFOLK
When Kirn Memorial Library downtown is demolished later this year for the light rail, its collection will be split between the nearby historic Seaboard building and a newly rented warehouse.
The most frequently used resources - including public computers, the local history and genealogy collection, children's books and programs, and popular fiction and nonfiction - will be in Seaboard. Lesser-used materials will be stored at the warehouse, or service center.
Because Seaboard is about half the size of Kirn, the city approved a three-year lease for a 27,000-square-foot office and warehouse building on Pine-ridge Road in the Norfolk Industrial Park for about $21,000 per month. The center will not be open to the public. When an item there is requested by a patron, it will be sent to Seaboard or to a branch library within a day or two, library director Norman Maas said.
Assistant City Manager Marcus Jones said transferring materials to the Pineridge building could start next month, with administrative staff moving over in late September or October.
Getting Seaboard operational for the public is more challenging. The city is working with a library moving expert to develop a plan for moving into Seaboard in the fall.
"This is not a weekend move," Jones said.
"We're going to try to make sure we have some presence in downtown continuously," he said. "If we have a blackout period, we'll work to make it as short a period as possible."
The city purchased the Seaboard building, which is listed on state and national historic registers, for $7.2 million, and is spending about $2.2 million to convert it into a library. It was constructed on the corner of Plume and Atlantic streets in 1900 for the federal courts and post office, but is probably best known for its stint as City Hall from 1938 until 1965, spanning World War II and Massive Resistance.
City officials say the arrangement is temporary while plans are developed for a permanent main library. The current budget contains $2 million for long-term planning.
Tidewater Community College has a standing offer to team up with the city on a new downtown library. Old Dominion and Norfolk State universities have made similar offers.
Even when the library moves out of Seaboard, Mayor Paul Fraim said, the city will find another public use for it.
Debbie Messina, (757) 446-2588, debbie.messina@pilotonline.com
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What Historic Preservation?
It looks like the City of Norfolk is doing what it does best; bulldozing historic landmarks in the name of big business. Score another point for the greedy corporate developers and their buddies in city government. Sending the Kirn library books to a warehouse huh? Great plan guys...
Reflects on the city
The city council needs to understand that its neglect in planning for a good central library is a very poor reflection on the community as a whole. If they truly want to attract great businesses to Norfolk, they need to realize that the rest of the world looks at the quality of libraries and public schools when deciding whether to ask employees to relocate. It's a reflection of the community's values and priorities.
It was a different attitude when the Kirn was built; it was state of the art and excellent for its time. What happened? Has anyone cared about maintaining quality and keeping pace with the times?
Use of old Seaboard building
While the comment about utilizing the Waterside building as a state of the art library option sounds good, the truth is the land is just too valuable for that use. The use of the older landmark building ( one of the few that have not been torn down in the name of progress) would make an excellent depository for all things Norfolk and the older documents and records room for materials that could be used for serious research or just used by people who want to know more about the old Norfolk. Carroll Walker's photographs could be programmed in as part of a permanent display of how Norfolk used to look. Many of us old enough to pay the more serious tax bills for the city would appreciate being afforded the opportunity to remember when and perhaps, be good stewards from the past, to help teach and educate our continually transient residency about this gem we all love to call home. It could also be a site for school field trips for our next generation of leaders. Perhaps the next generation will see the value of saving the best of what was while looking to the future to keep us competitive. As for the more current inventory at the library, I would suggest a partnership with any one
Why not make Waterside the new library?
They want to tear down the library and build a new one, tear down Waterside and build condos, tear down the courts complex and build a new one. How about we take a look at re-using at least one of these structurally sound buildings? I'd like to know someone at least considered moving the library into Waterside. If it's not economically viable as a dining & entertainment center, maybe they should put something there that's not expected to be economically viable. And why not make it the permanent HRT bus transfer hub while they're at it, instead of that parking lot in the middle of nowhere.
Books need to go to
Ocean View's new library until or unless a new library is built. The shelves are half empty. Putting good books away in storage is taking valuable resources out of the hands of the taxpayers who paid for them!
What a waste
When the libarary moves out. Yea, right. Anyone wanna bet the library will never move from seaboard. That is unless norfolk wants to tear that building down for another choo-choo stop, or for another city financed developer project. Heck, it's just a historic building, kinda like the dirt lot on main street used to be.